Cisco's quarterly results beat expectations

Cisco Systems has posted stronger-than-expected quarterly profits.

The company earned $772m (€798m), or 10 cents (€0.13) per share, compared with a profit of $7m (€7.23m) in the same period a year ago.

Fourth-quarter sales were $4.8bn (€4.96bn), a 12% increase over $4.3bn (€4.44bn) last year.

Chief executive John Chambers says: "This was another solid quarter for Cisco, despite the ongoing challenges in the economy.

"We continued to focus on what we can control, and the results speak for themselves."

Last year, Cisco was struggling to overcome sharply lower demand for its routers and other equipment that handle traffic over the internet as dotcoms faltered and then larger businesses pulled back on spending.

The company shed 8,500 jobs and wrote off $2.25bn (€2.32bn) of inventory.

In May, Cisco hinted at an upturn in tech spending.